the_neverending_story_isbfandomcom-20200214-history
Leg Post 83
Leg Post 83 opens in the year 5300BC below the Elborz Mountain Range, south of the Caspian Sea, where a tiger spots his newest meal. However, Mount Damavand, the world's only vril volcano, suddenly erupts with molten vril as it births a terrible vrilian dragon named Aži Dahāka. In 2700BC, Zoroaster is travelling with his new apprentice Imhotep, after Leg Post 58, upon one of Imhotep's impossible inventions. Due to Entropy, the device fails and they plunge to the ground only to be saved by Zoroaster's magic. They have arrived at the Elborz mountains where Zoroaster wishes to create his magical sanctum. They must first, however, deal with Aži Dahāka. The dragon instantly lands, poised for attack, and Imhotep runs away to hide and watch the battle. The smallest of Zoroaster's orbs protects him from the vril spewed upon him by the dragon and he uses his Aero Wand to defend himself. When the dragon holds Zoroaster in his claws, the NeSorceer uses the Bone Wand, made from the femur of Belshaggath, to burst open the blood vessels within Aži Dahāka's mouth. He then uses his Plasma Wand, made with a strand of Thor's hair, to summon down prongs of lightning that blasted a hole in the dragon's hide. The dragon grips the human sorcerer and flies through the atmosphere and into space, where Zoroaster must use magic to keep himself alive and protected from the void. Here, however, he can luckily use the great power of the moon with his Moon Wand, summoning the magic of the celestrial body into a massive beam of light to blast the dragon. Both he and Aži Dahāka plunge back to Earth. He is protected from the heat by another of his orbs. When he lands, using the Aero Wand, he travels up Mount Damavand with Imhotep. He uses his Druidic Wand to communicate with the Aes Sidhe and gain their trust in aiding him and Imhotep create a prison to trap the mighty dragon. Imhotep, however, reminds Zoroaster that his inventions will always fail due to the affects of Entropy but Zoroaster believes the prison can be perpetually powered by the vril within the volcano itself. When the dragon returned, Zoroaster and the Aes Sidhe battled the beast but many Aes Sidhe are slain. When Zoroaster summons a bolt of lightning to the vril pool, it turns to stone and allows him to escape the pool to saftey. Imhotep's prison opens a portal to the sun and from it extends the hand of the sun god, Helios, who grabs Aži Dahāka to pull him into the sun. The dragon's four wings bolt to the walls of the volcano and Helios' cannot pull the dragon through, now eternally locked in place. The prison is built around the dragon and extended. The Aes Sidhe flee, as they do not want to die, but mages come to Zoroaster's new sanctum to learn from him. The sanctum is built just above the prison and the mages serve as gaolers. They are able to rid themselves of their negativity by subjecting themselves to the verbal torture of Aži Dahāka and the mages become the Shaheb-e-Dilan, "The Masters of the Heart". After Imhotep learnt the NeSpell and became the new NeSorcerer, he leaves Mount Damavand to learn of the world. But in 1198BC, Aman Tabiz arrives to inform Zoroaster that Imhotep has lost the mantle of NeSorcerer. Post Aži Dahāka To the east of the Black Sea and south of the Great Steppe was the inland Caspian Sea. In the year 5300BC, Caspian tigerCaspian Tiger article, Wikipedia. prowled along the southern-most beach, overlooked by the Elborz mountain range. The tiger spied a turtle that was clambering out of the inland sea and pounced on his newest meal of the day. He is suddenly startled, however, allowing the turtle to make its escape back into the salty water, as a tremendous boom shook the land. He stared off into the distance to see a dark cloud fill the sky and a thick, glutenous liquid blast into the sky. Mount Damavand, the world’s only vril volcano, erupted. The hot liquid was thrust into the air, where it sizzled against the aether. It slopped its way down the mountainside in a thick, gloopy torrent. Anything and everything in its path was engulfed and disintegrated into its atoms. Plants and animals alike were consumed. Except one. One that was birthed by the mountain itself. Mount Damavand seemed to give a great heave and from its open canal sprang a monstrous beast that had been gestating within its vrilian womb. The creature’s wings snapped open, all four of them, as it began to glide on the air, circling its home. The great dragon was ashen grey and its skin so tight that it appeared skeletal. Most notably was the absence of a stomach. Its rib bones were visible and wrapped like a cocoon where the stomach ought to have been, but within the ribs was empty air. It plunged back down and opened its maw to gorge upon the hot vril. It slithered down the beast’s throat and nestled into its empty stomach. There the vril gathered up, kept in place by an invisible wall of aether, and gathered into a bright, blue pool. To test himself, the dragon let loose a great stream of vril straight into the air from his new reserve. It sprayed high, high in to the sky. The beast, satisfied, began to survey his new world. His skin was grey flesh and not scaled, like many other dragons. His eyes were bright orbs of golden light and from the top of his head were ram-like horns that were twisted around and around into two fine points. Its long tail was jagged and pointed by extruding bones from within and his four, powerful legs were ended with long talons that cut into the very rock of the volcano. In a very human-like motion, the dragon turned to crack the bones in his neck and twisted his long muzzle into a grim smile. Aži Dahāka: “What destruction shall I sow upon this virgin land? What misery shall I cast upon sapient-kind?” Over two-thousand years later and there was a small, very peculiar-looking, machine dangerously falling from the sky. The machine looked like a fat seagull with three heads, twenty legs and ten wings – because more is ‘cool’. However the machine was now popping springs, spilling fuel and ready to explode. Zoroaster: “I wish you had warned me it wouldn’t last the whole trip, Imhotep!” Imhotep: “I can’t predict when it’ll decay! They just… do!” Zoroaster: “The closer to the ground we get, the better. At least then if we fall, we may just break out legs and not splatter…” Imhotep: “Cheery thought.” Zoroaster: “Just being practical! Come now, down we go!” The flying-buggy drew closer and closer to the ground. Zoroaster: “That’s it!” Imhotep: “To be honest, it’s kind of headed that way anyway!” The seagull gave one last cough of smoke and then it was in freefall. Imhotep lost his Egyptian-fashion hat and the orbs that follow Zoroaster were speeding after him like a series of children, frightened they’d be lost. The vehicle, being much heavier than either man, soon outpaced them to its imminent demise on the earth and the humans were left with nothing but air between their legs. Zoroaster: “Well, that is why I have’ll have to truck with these new-fangled technologies all the kids are using!” Imhotep closed his eyes, certain he was about to be dashed into a lot of tiny, iddy-biddy pieces, only to find himself being slowly lowered onto the sand. Zoroaster hooked his wand back onto his belt, along with the rest of them. Each wand had its own unique appearance and while most were made of wood there were a few made of other materials. A very simple wand, that appeared more like a pipe with a grip, was made of iron. Another delicate wand was made of glass, showing the core within its centre. Not every wand was showy. Some were made purely for practical use in certain scenarios. One wand was best used when conducting aether. Another when used specifically with the water element. Another was best used for conjuring and yet another was best for druidic magic in taming nature. Imhotep: “Where are we anyway?” Zoroaster: “You were driving! Weren’t you paying any attention to where you were going?” Imhotep: “I was just following your directions!” Zoroaster: “Such a lack of geographical knowledge from someone supposedly so talented? I suppose raw skill is no match for learned knowledge.” Imhotep: “Am I being insulted? I think I’m being insulted…” Zoroaster: “This is the far reaches of the Assyrian Empire, Imhotep.” Imhotep: “You know, my name isn’t actually Imhotep—” Zoroaster ignored him and carried on. Zoroaster: “This is the Caspian Sea and there lie the Elborz mountains. And that lonely mountain in the centre is where I plan to build my lair!” Imhotep: “Lair!?” Zoroaster: “Yes? What?” Imhotep: “Lair gives off a kind of villainous air…” Zoroaster: “Honestly! Such silliness. Lair is a perfectly fine word.” Imhotep: “What about base?” Zoroaster: “B-B-base!? What do you take me for!?” Imhotep: “A good guy?” Zoroaster softened at that. Zoroaster: “Yes, well. My domain…” Imhotep: “Eeeeeeh…” Imhotep, palm stretched out, waggled it back and forth. Imhotep: “What about realm?” Zoroaster: “I am no king!” Imhotep: “Do you have to be a king to have a realm?” Zoroaster: “Yes.” Imhotep: “Oh…” Zoroaster: “This will be my… my…” He glanced at Imhotep. Zoroaster: “Sanctum!” Imhotep: “Oooooooo! Yeeeeeees! Very mystical!” Zoroaster: “But first, we must overcome a blood-thirsty dragon.” Imhotep: “Uh… what now?” From the skies suddenly howled a terrible roar as a monstrous dragon with four wings plunged from the clouds. The creature came down before them and landed with such momentum that the ground shook and Imhotep almost tumbled over. Zoroaster perched his old legs for the crash and managed to maintain his ground. Zoroaster: “Hear me, Aži Dahāka! Your reign of terror has come to an end!” Aži Dahāka: “Is that so, little man?” The beast leered over them with a nasty smirk. His teeth were yellowed and filled with the decay of corpses. He couldn’t eat anything except for vril but he chewed living creatures nonetheless. His voice was a deep bass that rattled the bones of the two men. As he glared, the luminescence of his eyes increased. Zoroaster: “For too long has man allowed you to prey upon—where are you going!?” Imhotep: “I am not going to get eaten by a dragon! Call me when it’s over!” Zoroaster: “You blighter! Get back here!” The dragon chuckled, his deep voice clucking. Aži Dahāka: “How entertaining you both are. Come now, little man. Serve me. Entertain me. And I may let you live.” Zoroaster: “Foul creature of—of---” Aži Dahāka: “Of what?” Zoroaster: “Give me a moment to think…” Zoroaster stroked his long beard for a moment. Zoroaster: “Aha! Foul creature of demonstrable calamity!” Aži Dahāka: “Oh! Not bad!” Zoroaster: “Yes, thank you. Now—” Aži Dahāka: “Alas. Your fate is sealed.” The dragon belched up vril from his gut. It poured from his mouth like blue magma, much like the Earth’s core from which Aži Dahāka had been spewed. The vril splashed on the ground where Zoroaster stood and coated everything in its sticky goop. The sizzling of organic material and aether blasted in the ears of Imhotep, who was hiding behind a rock. Aži Dahāka: “I almost wish that could have lasted longer! Humans are such tiny morsels…” Zoroaster: “If that is what you think of us, then you do not understand us at all.” Aži Dahāka: “Now, now! What’s this!?” The molten vril slopped down the sides of Zoroaster like oil. He shook himself and the last of the liquid magic trickled off of his person. One of the smaller orbs that floated around him had been glowing but now ceased with the threat extinguished. Imhotep: “Wow! You’re alive! That was amazing!” Zoroaster: “You mistake me for a conjurer of cheap tricks, Imhotep!” Aži Dahāka: “But now, I shall not.” The dragon’s mighty tail swung round with far more speed than most would expect of such a huge beast. But one of Zoroaster’s wands quickly snapped to his hand and a powerful wall of wind blasted back at the tail. Aži Dahāka grunted as he met the sudden wall of pressure. Rather than fight it, he turned his claws into weapons. He slashed with his long, sharp talons. Zoroaster turned his wand and creature a sudden blast of wind before him. This wasn’t enough to repel the strength of the beast, but it was enough to propel himself backwards several metres to avoid being skewered. He had no time to then react as another bout of vril was gushed upon him. The smaller orb reverberated and glowed with a sharp green hue as it shielded Zoroaster from the affects the liquid magic. The human stepped away from the puddle. Aži Dahāka: “And how long can your little balls withstand this onslaught, I wonder?” Zoroaster: “There’s no need to get so personal, Aži Dahāka!” The dragon’s maw lunged at him and Zoroaster produced a sphere of wind, pushing outwards from his body. The massive teeth clamped down on the sphere, just inches from him. Slowly they pushed inwards. Zoroaster whipped another wand from his belt with his free hand. It was extremely long and narrow, carved from the femur bone of Belshaggath – an ancient NeSorcerer long deceased. At its core was inserted the ancient marrow of another NeSorcerer. Within it lay so much potential and it was crafted for one very gruesome purpose. He aimed it straight inside the dragon’s mouth and unleashed its power. Blood suddenly gushed from the dragon’s mouth and the beast retracted with sudden horror. Blood vessels all inside his mouth were bursting open and his blood was spilling out and in. It mixed in with the vril inside his open stomach. Aži Dahāka: “How dare you!!” He spluttered through rivers of his own blood. Zoroaster: “I do, indeed, dare.” His wind-element wand snapped itself back to his belt and he took out yet another wand. This was carved from the most magical of wood – the wood of Yggdrasil itself and for its core was a strand of Thor’s hair. There was a screech and snap from the sky above and one of the clouds turned pitch black, like darkness. The bolt of lightning came down in a fork, with three deadly prongs. The lightning itself was the hottest of plasma, as though it came from the sun itself, and it blasted against the dragon’s flesh. A hole blasted upon Aži Dahāka’s side and he roared. Not with pain, but from shame. A creature as terrible as this, feels no pain. Without any caution any longer, the dragon spewed vril upon Zoroaster and again his sphere acted in his defence. Aži Dahāka had been right, however. The spheres were not built to last forever but the dragon had feasted for centuries upon the liquid volcano of Mount Damavand. Then the dragon reached out and snatched Zoroaster while he was blinded by the vril. He soared up into the sky with the human in his claws and Zoroaster dropped the Bone Wand of Belshaggth. Aži Dahāka: “Greater wizards than you have tried and failed! You believed some blood magic and bad weather would defeat me!? Me!?” They went higher and higher and higher. The air grew colder and colder and colder. Zoroaster began to feel ice forming upon the dragon’s claws, but the vril within the beast kept him from freezing up entirely. Zoroaster himself used a simple magic spell, which he managed to mutter through the gale of wind, to heat himself up like a radiator. But then the atmosphere grew thin and the air was no longer cold – the was an absence of heat. He still had his wind element wand and managed to summon it to his hands, which were locked in place by the fingers of the monster. He snapped a shield of air all around him, like a miniature atmospheric bubble, that saved his air and his air pressure. Here in space, Zoroaster could see the planet curved around and sailing through space like a lonely ship of millions of people. With his other hand he struggled to summon another wand. The more powerful the wand, the more effort it took to control it and now, trapped in space with a dragon, old Zoroaster was feeling depleted. But come it did. The wand was an elegant piece made of soft wengeMillettia laurentii article, Wikipedia. from the African rosewood that was created by The White Goddess, carved and shaped by a renowned artisan in Cairo and combined with a slip of rock. The rock was from the very place at the wand was created to control the magical energies of. Although there was no sound in space, Zoroaster felt as though Aži Dahāka was laughing. Cackling even. The entire moon, however, then began to glow softly. Zoroaster jerked as Aži Dahāka stopped moving through space to spy the brightness of the large, white rocky world. Zoroaster focused and then, suddenly, a narrow ray of light blasted from the moon. Had the ray breached the atmosphere of the Earth, travelled down through the layers of cloud, gases, microbes and aether then its potency would have diminished drastically by the time it reached the land. Out here, with nothing between it and the target, the moonblast was so strong and powerful that Aži Dahāka was knocked back miles and miles. Zoroaster was dropped and he was soon plummeting to Earth. Another of his orbs, one of the larger ones designed to protect him from heat, started to vibrate and glow as heat burnt up around him. He became a meteor, coming down to Earth. Tired as he was, he managed to control his fall using the wind wand and he even managed a nice, soft landing, back in the Assyrian Empire and just a mile from where he had been formerly. A short march later and he rejoined Imhotep and they began to climb Mount Damavand, albeit slowly. Zoroaster was injured both physical, spiritually and magically. He realised he had actually been fortunate when Aži Dahāka dragged him into space. Anything less than the moonblast may not have dealt with the dragon so soundly. And yet, the beast was still out there. It wouldn’t be long before he could recuperate. When they reached the edge of the forest, before the bare rock of the volcano took precedent, Zoroaster turned and took out another wand. This wand had been fashioned by the druids of Stonehenge, who were attuned and friendly with the Aes Sidhe of Albion. He used the wand to reach out to any Aes Sidhe that had moved into such distant lands from Brittannia. Soon there were dozens of various Aes Sidhe species willing to lend their aid to Zoroaster. Imhotep: “What do we need them for?” Zoroaster sat down wearily. Zoroaster: “I thought you might need some help.” Imhotep: “Me? Help with what?” Zoroaster: “A prison…” He rubbed his eyes. He was using aether to keep himself awake but sleep was snapping at his mind and his now weary body was eagerly engaging with that nagging sleep sense. Zoroaster: “I do not know if a monster such as Aži Dahāka could ever truly be slain. The magic is too strong, his will to live too strong and the Narrative is strong too. But with these impossible machines that you make, perhaps you can create the impossible – a prison for the beast.” Imhotep: “I can try, but you know Entropy works very quickly on my impossible inventions. It won’t be long before he is free!” Zoroaster: “That is why we shall build it within his home. Within my new sanctum. Within Mount Damavand is an endless pool of vril that bubbles up from the planet’s core. If you craft it just right, the machine can be self-sustaining by using that endless supply of vril. Am I correct?” Imhotep: “I think that could work! Is that… why you came for me? Why you chose me?” Zoroaster: “Not at all! I didn’t choose you at all! I actually think something funny happened to time to make me arrive there… but no, I came up with this plan after I learn of your skills. You must live life ready to adapt at any moment. I have many possible plans, but only some of them will I ever be able to enact should the opportunities arise.” Imhotep: “Very wise!” Zoroaster: “Indeed. I suppose I am. You, however, have talent but no wisdom. This I intend to teach you. But for now, we need that talent.” And so Imhotep designed a prison capable of holding the dreaded Aži Dahāka. As Zoroaster predicted, the dragon did return to Mount Damavand eventually. The beast required its eternal source of nourishment. The humans and the Aes Sidhe hid and lay in wait. The dragon entered his lair— Imhotep: “See!? Evil word!” Zoroaster: “Hush!” --But he instantly sensed that something was amiss. Though he had grown arrogant in his age, he was now on edge since his defeat at the hands of Zoroaster. The interior of the volcano had a long ring of stone around the outside with the molten vril bubbling at the centre. Though the volcano had not erupted for over two-thousand years, it was still active. The Aes Sidhe burst from hiding first and Zoroaster joined them in the attack. Though Aži Dahāka may once have laughed this off as a futile attempt, his wounded pride and injured body demanded a total victory of carnage. He slammed his jaws down upon the nearest bodies of the Aes Sidhe and they were ripped to shreds. Zoroaster tried to use shield spells to protect as many of them as he could, but the dragon was enraged. Zoroaster doubted he could have bested this beast had he shown this much ferocity in their initial encounter. The dragon’s tail swung around and Zoroaster tried to repel it again with his wind wand but now the attack was too strong and Zoroaster was struck so hard that he was sent flying over the vril pool. He tumbled down and splashed into it. The small orb rattled like crazy as it sought to protect him from the liquid magic. He swam towards the edge of the pool but the rockface back to the circular ledge was too sheer. Zoroaster: “I should definitely invest in a wand to control vril…” He managed to get the Yggdrasil Wand out and held it aloft. He was losing the strength to swim and his orb was ready to rattle its last rattle. The bolt of plasma smashed down from the sky and struck the vril. An unusual affect happened next, which Zoroaster had expected. The bolt turned to stone as it his the magical liquid. The jagged rock spire was a much easier climb and he sought to reach the peak. He was still some space away from the ledge but he only needed to use the wind wand to fly himself over the gap to safety. He reached the rock, with an air of self-congratulation, when he was suddenly slammed against the wall by the tail of Aži Dahāka. He felt his bones crunch as solid wall and tonnes of flesh met. When the tail removed itself, Zoroaster fell limply to the floor. He watched through bleary eyes as more Aes Sidhe were ripped to pieces in a shower of horrible gore. He partly wished he had never asked for their help in the fight, to spare their lives, but he knew the creature could never be locked up without their sacrifice. Then, from within the vril pit, a great hand, as large as the dragon himself, reached out of the magic. Deep within it the impossible machine had opened a portal into the sun itself and from within the sun, the sun god, Helios reached out. He grasped the dragon, who fought with tooth and nail but the glowing plasma of the sun could not be harmed. The hand pulled down and submerged the body of the dragon, with the intent of pulling the beast all the way through. His wings, however, snagged on the walls of the volcano walls and lodged himself in place. The sun tugged but the colossal beast refused to budge. The grip of both titans remained in place and neither could be loosed. Aži Dahāka’s head and forearms were still free, but his lower half was trapped by Helios. For months the dragon struggled but Imhotep and the Aes Sidhe worked on maintaining and sustaining the portal and Helios’ grasp of Aži Dahāka. They built ever more elaborate imprisonments; wards, magical chains, a collar and even barred the walls of the volcano itself like a cage. Eventually Aži Dahāka settled down and rather than rage at his captors, he belittled and threatened them. Many Aes Sidhe fled, having seen their brethren destroyed already. They were immortal magical beings and death was even more a grave consequence than it was for the mortal humans who knew and understood death. The idea that their friends were now gone seemed impossible to them and they did not want to be ‘gone’ too. The entrapments were fuelled by the vril volcano itself and so while Entropy resumed its affect, the spells were constantly fed and recast by the vril. A new layer was built above Aži Dahāka, which was to be the sanctum of Zoroaster. Here he built his studio and began to teach Imhotep how to use magic itself, rather than use his impossible machines to utilise magic on his behalf. Whenever Imhotep had to practice his spells on something, Aži Dahāka made excellent target practice – though the dragon usually claimed the spells just tickled him, no matter how destructive they got. Other students also came to learn magic and soon there developed a clan of mages that lived in the mountain, above the dragon. The dragon was forever awake and now, able to forever feed on the vril he bathed in, he never tired. Zoroaster made regular trips out of his sanctum, but returned in 1250BC after joining Athena’s Eleven with the determination to finally finish Imhotep’s training. Imhotep was proving to be an impossible student as he was very ignorant of the world and the cosmos in general, but especially on the subject of magic. His over reliance on his impossible machines made him a difficult student to train because he often took the short cut. Zoroaster often wished he could take that innate ability away from Imhotep so he could learn properly. Ultimately, having lost patience, Zoroaster sent Imhotep to student in Egypt under the new god of magic, Isis. Isis, in turn, had learn from Thoth and so Zoroaster hoped she could teach Imhotep. With a series of guest teachers too, Imhotep came back with a well-rounded education and, finally, some actual skill in magic. But most importantly he understood the need to learn. Zoroaster was finally able to teach his pupil in the Narrative and, after a few more years, was able to pass on the NeSpell to Imhotep. With elation, Imhotep left the sanctum to explore the world and continue his education, while Zoroaster was left with his many other students. They had become known as the Shaheb-e-Dilan – “The Masters of the Heart” – as they trained to control their emotions by subjecting themselves to the vitriol of Aži Dahāka, who was more than happy to berate anyone that came into his lair below the sanctum. Many fled, never to return. Those that remained were men and women of inner peace and harmony. And then, in the year 1198BC, a stranger came to Mount Damavand. He was an old acquaintance of Imhotep and went by the name of Aman Tabiz. He came with the unfortunate news – Imhotep had lost the title of NeSorcerer… References External References Category:Post Category:Leg Post